Bruce Nauman was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on 6 December 1941. He studied mathematics, then art, at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, between 1960 and 1964. He continued his art studies at the University of California, Davis, graduating in 1966. He held his first solo exhibition at the Nicholas Wilder Gallery in 1966, showing fibreglass sculptures, and in that year also participated in the exhibition 'Eccentric Abstraction' at Fischbach Gallery, New York. From 1966 to 1968 Nauman worked was a teacher at the San Francisco Art Institute. Solo exhibitions at the Leo Castelli Gallery, New York, and Galerie Konrad Fischer, Düsseldorf, in 1968, were well received and launched Nauman's career. In 1969 he was included in the 'conceptual art' exhibition 'When Attitudes Become form: Works-Concepts-Processes-Situations' at the Kunsthalle, Berne, and the survey of 'process art', 'Anti-Illusion: Procedures/Materials' at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. In 1970 he participated in the exhibition 'Information' at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. A retrospective organised in 1972 by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art travelled to New York, Berne, Eindhoven, Milan, Houston and San Francisco. In 1986 a retrospective was organised by the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and the Kunsthalle, Basle, Nauman lives and works in Altadena, California.